CalArts Portfolio Workings

I'm managing to juggle time between high school, CART projects, and the CalArts portfolio. It's an unfortunate schedule, with so many pages of life drawing every day in order to fill the sketchbook. It's almost a feeling of getting burnt out.

Still, I've been telling myself to hold it out for just this fall. A couple months of stress is worth a completed portfolio.

Of course, these aren't the only worries. Scholarship opportunities have been searched out, but I'm surprised at the lack of. I guess the economy is really hitting us hard, talk about bad timing with my generation for college funds.

Still, I'm hoping for the best and praying to God. My mind's been full on many things, but I have found time to wind down a bit. For the time being however, internet is being kept to a minimum.

For My Sake

"Never let go of the truth, even in the face of laughter."

Spontaneous picture idea.

CSSSA Experience

So, I'm back from CSSSA(The California State Summer School for the Arts). As usual. it was amazing, with visiting artists such as Stephen Grueber(spl?), Mark Walsh, Bobby Podesta, and a background artist from Nickelodeon currently working on the "Mighty B!" show.

Despite the dramatic faculty change from last year, I learned quite a few new tricks this year. My shading skills have improved under the instruction of Jonny Gomez, and I've developed a new love for contour drawings after classes by Steve Brown. There's much to be applied and built upon in the future, so I'm quite excited to explore these techniques in new ways.

The animators were spoiled this year, with a few classes taught by the visiting artists Mark Walsh and Bobby Podesta(mentioned above) concerning storyboarding and animation principles. We were taught to keyframe and always add a sense of personality to whatever we were animating. And, of course, we were taught the basics of squash/stretch, weight, etc.

My life drawings have improved, I think. I compared my CSSSA sketchbook from last year to this year's, and there's such a change. It's fantastic, I hope to share some pages with you guys!

The CalArts portfolio deadline is December 1st. Time to get started. :)

Surprises and Second Tries

First off, I'd like to thank Rockerbot on DA for creating an RSS feed for LJ. For thanks, I've drawn you a few sketches of your griffon character.

Of course, I had to take advantage of this for the first serious entry in the blog, so I posted both tries in sketching the character. Here is the first try:

In evaluation of the character, I made a general sketch concerning his design. Normally, whenever I try to jump into drawing a character, it turns out less lively than if I had continued with a brand new sketch. The first step is simply exploration, what works and what can be exaggerated. I also think of ways to show personality and how far I can push the design in mechanics.

However, there are many cases where there is only time for a first sketch,

With all of this in mind, the first try of the character was truly a practice run. After exploring te character's design, I was able to draw a much better picture:

You can easily see how much more motion is included in the second try. I decided to take advantage of the griffon's wings for a sense of movement(notice the fold on the tips). The griffon is excited as well, appearing to enjoy his or her flight through the sky. Perspective is used as well to develop a 3D illusion.

In conclusion, I've made a note to myself: always try a second time, a third, or even a fourth if you can. Always explore your options.

Lastly, I hope that Rockerbot enjoys the finished sketch!